I grew up in Newport RI. My high school was a mile or so from Seaview Terrace, the mansion that was used as Collinwood. Locally, it's known more commonly as "Carey Mansion". Something occurred to me when I went home this summer. Art Wallaces original bible for the show named the heroine Sheila. That name was later, of course, changed to Victoria. If you are driving towards Seaview, on Ruggles Avenue, you will come to a Victoria Avenue. It never dawned upon me to wonder if this is where they got the idea to change the name of their ingenue.
Another place I took for granted was a dive called "The Trawler". It's been gutted, remodeled, and sold since the '80s. Back then, it looked amaziningly like "The Blue Whale". In fact, the person who took me there the first time, did so because he was struck by the resemblance when he saw the TV show. Again, could this have been the genesis of the design for the set? I suppose it could be a coincidence, but the layout and the decor were a fairly close match. The main difference was the placement of the door. The Blue Whale entrance faces the bar and has a railing. One entered The Trawler by a door that led you in with the bar on your left.
Another bit of trivia, Joanna Going, of the '91 series, graduated from Rogers High Schoo, in 1981. Although she was born in Washington DC, she spent most of her school days in the Newport School District. It certainly was a shock to me when I'd heard she'd been cast as Victoria. While we were not close friends, we'd been in at least 3 classes together, including a drama class, senior year.
